Gennaro Gattuso said on Thursday that Italy still have a mountain to climb with Bosnia and Herzegovina standing between the Azzurri and the World Cup finals.
Italy beat Northern Ireland 2-0 to reach the qualifying play-off final, which they will have to play away from home against the Bosnians.
Italy haven’t been to a World Cup finals since being dumped out in the group stage in 2014 and the possibility of a third straight absence weighed heavily on players, coach and fans.
“We’ve taken a little step forward, now we have to climb the mountain, the Everest,” said Gattuso. “We know that there’s a lot at stake, I think everyone had some butterflies today and that’s understandable. I had them, Gigi Buffon has them, we all did.”
Italy battled past Northern Ireland but didn’t shine against a team which was largely made up of lower league players, Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean’s goals were two rare moments of quality in Bergamo.
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